South San Antonio ISD agreed to pay departing chief $138,000

1of 10Board president Angelina Ostegun confers with Superintendent Abelardo Saavedra began at South San ISD board meeting where on the agenda is the controversial proposed closing of three elementary schools on Thursday, April 19, 2017.Photo: Ron Cortes, Freelance / For the San Antonio Express-News / Ronald Cortes

2of 10Newly hired South San Superintendent Abelardo Saavedra tours the renovated JROTC building at South San High School on Thursday, Mar. 27, 2014 with staff and contractors. The tour was part of Saavedra's goal for his first 100 days in office. (Kin Man Hui/San Antonio Express-News)Photo: Kin Man Hui, Staff / San Antonio Express-News

3of 10Newly hired South San Superintendent Abelardo Saavedra tours the renovated JROTC building at South San High School on Thursday, Mar. 27, 2014 with staff and contractors. The tour was part of Saavedra's goal for his first 100 days in office. (Kin Man Hui/San Antonio Express-News)Photo: Kin Man Hui, Staff / San Antonio Express-News

4of 10Newly hired South San Superintendent Abelardo Saavedra (center) and ROTC instructor Maj. Arturo Ruiz tour the renovated JROTC building at South San High School on Thursday, Mar. 27, 2014 with staff and contractors. The tour was part of Saavedra's goal for his first 100 days in office. (Kin Man Hui/San Antonio Express-News)Photo: Kin Man Hui, Staff / San Antonio Express-News

9of 10South San Antonio Independent School District superintendent Abelardo Saavedra meets with Palo Alto College officials about an early college high school program that he is helping design on Wednesday, March 25, 2015.Photo: Billy Calzada, Staff / San Antonio Express-News

10of 10South San Antonio Independent School District superintendent Abelardo Saavedra meets with officials at Palo Alto College about an early college high school program that he is helping design on Wednesday, March 25, 2015.Photo: Billy Calzada, Staff / San Antonio Express-News

Former South San Antonio Independent School District Superintendent Abelardo Saavedra was paid more than $138,000 after leaving the district, according to a resignation and separation agreement with the board.

Under the agreement, Saavedra was owed $50,575 in salary he would have earned had he stayed at South San through Dec. 21, plus $88,237 for his 82 unused days of leave. His contract was to expire in March and he gave up $49,499 in pay he was entitled to “in an effort to exit the district amicably,” the agreement said.

The amount of the buyout “was mutually agreed upon by both parties,” district officials said in a prepared statement issued Tuesday in response to questions about Saavedra’s severance package. The agreement required that he be paid within five days of his last day on the job, which was Oct. 12.

Alexandro Flores, the former superintendent of Palacios Independent School District, started at South San as Saavedra’s replacement on Oct. 15. Flores will be paid $190,000 annually, with a one-time $5,000 moving allowance, according to his contract.

Flores also will be eligible for annual payments of $6,000 for each of the district’s Lone Star Governance annual goals that are met each year. Those goals will be made public and available to the community, the district’s statement said. South San has not previously offered a goals-based incentive for superintendents.

“If the district is indeed performing at high levels and achieving the goals it has set for itself, then the superintendent should be rewarded accordingly instead of the superintendent automatically receiving compensation regardless of whether the district is reaching its goals or otherwise,” the South San statement said.

Trustees voted unanimously to approve Flores’ contract earlier this month. They voted 6-1 to approve Saavedra’s separation agreement, with Connie Prado the lone dissenter. She cited the district’s poor performance under the state’s accountability system this summer as one of 46 that received a “D” grade. Five of its campuses were rated Improvement Required.

“The one that’s responsible, ultimately, for that, is of course the superintendent,” Prado said. “Why do we pay him money to leave when he’s left our district in bad standing?”

The other six trustees praised Saavedra’s efforts to stabilize and improve the district. The Texas Education Agency was investigating South San ISD and he was its fifth superintendent in less than three years when he was hired in 2014, having recently retired as superintendent of Houston ISD, the state’s largest.

Saavedra plans to teach at Texas A&M University. He announced in June that he would not seek an extension to his South San contract and the board launched a search and hired Flores. Houston ISD’s board, meanwhile, voted this month to bring Saavedra back as an interim superintendent but reversed itself within days amid trustee infighting that prompted him to announce he wouldn’t take the job.

Because South San is facing declining enrollment and got a poor academic rating from the state, “the Board ultimately determined that it would be in the best interest of the District to have the new incoming Superintendent come in and take stock … and make any necessary changes moving forward with enough time to make an impact in the current academic year,” the district’s statement said.

Liz Teitz covers several school districts, charter schools and private universities in the San Antonio and Bexar County area. She joined the Express-News in 2018, and previously covered education and news in Southeast Texas for the Beaumont Enterprise.